| The following article is written from an Out of Universe perspective. |
A director of photography — often abbreviated DP or DOP, and somewhat arguably interchangeable with the term cinematographer — is a key department head on the production of film and digitally-captured productions set in the Doctor Who universe. In charge of the lighting and actual filming of an episode, the DP is perhaps most simply thought of as the person responsible for the visual tonality of principal photography. Combined with the post-production talent of the colourist, the cinematographer is one of two key people whose artistic choices are indispensable to the way an episode looks.